Gianandrea Noseda and the London Symphony Orchestra for the World Premiere of James MacMillan’s All the Hills and Vales Along

7. November 2018

«A packed Barbican Hall gave a heartfelt endorsement to both parts of this stimulating programme of similarities and contrasts. James MacMillan’s All the Hills and Vales Along is described as an oratorio. (…) Then a blistering performance of Shostakovich’s monumental Fourth Symphony – a work he “voluntarily” shelved in 1936 following his “officially sanctioned” denunciation following Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. That it only achieved its first performance in 1961 still seems astonishing. The abrupt and unsettling switches of tempo and mood were deftly negotiated by Gianandrea Noseda and the LSO was admirable. (…). Exhausting, unsettling and exhilarating.»Classical Source, Alexander Campbell

«(…) It was a high-decibel evening all round, as Gianandrea Noseda and the London Symphony Orchestra paired the new MacMillan with Shostakovich’s wild Symphony No.4, its coruscating climaxes often ear-splitting in this venue. Their performance came hard on the heels of the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the BBC Proms and, if this was occasionally less note-perfect, it had a drive that raised the hairs on the back of the neck.»Financial Times, Richard Fairman

«I don’t quite know where to start. Possibly with the unusual pleasure of being in a concert hall with seven euphoniums, bulbous silver monsters of tubing, being carried on stage by members of the superb National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain. Then again, there was the sustained expectant throb that soon followed from Gianandrea Noseda and the LSO strings — the first indication that James MacMillan’s All the Hills and Vales Along was going to be the kind of work to touch your soul and keep you transfixed. (…) Another master dramatist, Shostakovich, was in full cry after the interval. As an interpretation, Noseda’s take on his belligerently anarchic and experimental Fourth Symphony broke no new ground. The exceptional qualities lay instead in the effortless way he glued together its disparate parts while bravely conducting from a miniature score, and the LSO’s extraordinary finesse.»The Times, Geoff Brown